Mass complaint updated to include overturning of red card for Folarin Balogun

We’ve added Infantino’s possible role in the overturning of a red card for Folarin Balogun to our list of code of ethics violations we’re asking FIFA’s Ethics Committee to investigate. We’re now up to 7.

On 1 July 2026, during the men’s World Cup match between the USA and Bosnia & Herzegovina, USA player Folarin Balogun was sent off for serious foul play. The USA won the match and qualified for the next round of the competition, where they were scheduled to play Belgium on 6 July. In line with FIFA regulations, Balogun should have served an automatic one-match suspension. 

However, on 5 July, FIFA announced that the FIFA Disciplinary Committee had suspended Balogun’s one-match suspension, making him eligible to play in the match against Belgium. 

There is strong evidence to suggest the decision was rooted in political pressure applied by the US President to Gianni Infantino. At a press conference on 6 July, President Trump announced he had intervened and asked Infantino for a review of Balogun’s ban, saying:

“I spoke to Gianni [Infantino]. …So I saw the play, and I’m a person that loves sports… and I understand sports really well…. and that wasn’t a foul. … Yes I asked for a review by FIFA. I spoke to a man who is highly respected. I asked for a review because I didn’t think it was a foul. Again I’m good at this stuff, I didn’t think it was a foul…. If they wouldn’t allow a top player to play … I think it would have had a big stain. … and I relayed it.. I didn’t tell him what to do, I can’t tell him what to do.”

UEFA issued a statement on 6 July saying that FIFA’s actions “crossed a red line” and expressing “disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision.”

FIFA said that the Disciplinary Committee applied Article 27 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code in arriving at its decision. On 12 July, The Times reported that the decision to effectively waive the ban on Balogun was taken unilaterally by the chairman of Fifa’s disciplinary committee, Mohammad Al-Kamali, that it is the first time that this chairman has been the sole arbiter in a case, and that “more important cases often involve three committee members sitting together to make a decision.”

We will ask the Ethics Committee to investigate the circumstances that led to the ban to be effectively overturned and Gianni Infantino’s role in that process.

Photo: President Donald Trump, flanked by Vice President JD Vance and FIFA President Gianni Infantino, announces that the FIFA World Cup draw will take place on December 5 at the Kennedy Center, Friday, August 22, 2025. Credit: The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons